Owing to a number of comments and posts on the subject, the time has come for poor grammar to be given a special mention here on The Shitopedia. I do not pretend to be a literary giant or a guardian of my mother tongue. I, too, make mistakes and typos. However, poor grammar in its worst form is infuriating. Nothing gives me less pride in my nation than to hear a Brit abroad say something along the lines of, “Oh yeah we been everywhere. We done Melbourne, we done Sydney”.
A Facebook group called: “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar,” had 210,362 members at last look. Although such snobbery is indicative of Facebook’s middle-class orgins, it also reflects the truism of this post. I hate it when journalists and so-called writers make terrible errors whilst being paid for the privilege. Worse still, the deliberate crap spewed out by Myspacers. I realise that the internet has its own rules and that failing to capitalise “I” is not a capital offence. However, to spell “racist” as “raisist” or to write such non-sensical sentences as “emo’s are as u have so wrongly put into your mental bubble containing the facts of your protected life”, is to invite ridicule.
Just to clarify -I am not criticising the efforts of our readers in Argentina or the younger generation (I think one young gentleman said he was only 12). Fair play to those learning English. I’m just ashamed of our native speakers ignoring all efforts to inject meaning into language.
Also, American mis-spelling is getting right up my nose. As I explained to a lady in Brisbane, who argued that the American spellings are easier, spelling is a useful way of communicating meaning. That is, the “paedo” in paedophile, comes from the latin for child. The “phile” part relates to sexual attraction. The American spelling, “pedophile” allows no such analysis. If it did, we would take “pedo” to mean foot and thus assume the defendent had a foot-fetish.
(2 votes, average: 2.5 out of 5)
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8 users responded in this post
I agree with you, Bindi. I know I make mistakes, big mistakes, but I’m 17 years old and I haven’t finished learning English. I will study English at University, “Translator”.
It’s true, there are so many people whose mother tongue is English that speak English worst than I do. Yes, american is easier, but I don’t like it because I don’t understand sometimes what they’re saying.
A few months ago I bought a book which was written by an American writer. Can you belive that the characters said “you ok?” instead of “Are you ok?”
Come on people!! That’s pittiful!!
Just speak English as it has to be spoken!!!
And about me, I’m the best in my class!!! (speaking english of course)
Luciana, you’re great at english, you should be proud as you’re a lot better than many people I know who speak it as a first language.
And Bindi, I totally agree on every point, I write fanfiction as a hobby, and although most of the stories on there are of a good standard, some of the spelling and grammar is appalling! I just feel that if the writer cannot be bothered to communicate properly in their story, I can’t be bothered to read said story. The same goes for people who use so-called ‘txt talk’ on msn etc, I generally reply rather monosyllabically to that, because I feel that they can’t be bothered to talk to me properly so I won’t talk to them properly.
I also hate how Americans slaughter our language by mis-spelling things, all I can think when I am witness to it is ‘we used to own you, now talk the way we tell you to!’
One of my college teachers drives me mad by saying ‘when you’ve wrote that down’ instead of ‘when you’ve written that down’.
Anyway, rant over, except to say Bindi - I love you for posting this!
Alleluia, little ones. At last, at long last, people who care about language.
Sixty years and a bit I have been waiting for fellow fans of literate language to arrive.
I shall post shortly a list of the misguided items which drive ME potty, although I agree with Booshfan’s “wrote” instead of “written”.
Luciana indeed should be proud of her grasp of English and I for one am sure she will go far.
Oh, thanks!! I’m so glad you think that!!! Thanks again!!!
Ah, a truly worthy topic. Reaching for my ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’ and rustling this morning’s Daily Telegraph.
Sighs in general contentment.
YES! I love you guys! Poor grammar and spelling is the bane of my existence. You will notice that I have posted a comment under the Emo article about the use of their, they are and they’re (under a different pseudonym). I find it an inexcusable sin that people neglect their language to such an extent that, more often than not, it is impossible to understand what they are trying to say.
My absolute pet peeve is people who struggle to read. I was fortunate enough to have gone to one of the top schools in South Africa and was shocked at how appalling peoples’ reading skills were. When I was doing my final year (age 18) there were a number of kids who would take up to 5 minutes to read a single page of the textbook; often using their finger to keep the place on the page and stopping at words of more than 3 syllables to phonetically break it down… and they would still pronounce it wrong!
SMS/text language is a plight on our linguistic wellbeing. People have argued that kind of language is what will shape the language in the future but I strongly disagree and say that it is the downfall of our language and just goes to show how lazy we have become in our daily life…
Once again, thank you for the post! I love you guys…
Luciana, your English is exceptionally good and I admire your dexterity in learning such a difficult and awkward language. Good luck
My only problem with text talk is when it leaves MSN and SMS and people start using it on forums. I cannot read them off a computer screen. Hurts my eyes. Gah!
x
Text talk makes me feel ridiculous because I have to read it out loud to try and work out what it means!
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